From the late-90s until the mid-aughts, there was something we might have called the “Favre Era” in the NFL. Oh, sure, he hung on after that for a while, but he was more sideshow than main act.

But the NFL has passed Favre by.

The league is full of colorful Favrian characters at QB. Colin Kaepernick comes to mind. But Kap can do things on the field that Favre never could, let alone could do now.

And Kaepernick is really good at Twitter (hey, Kap: Favorite this!) The closest Favre got to Twitter was how a-twitter he got texting photos. (Zing!)

Otherwise, the most dynamic QBs are all-business. Off the field, they are savvy marketing machines; on the field, they are playmaking wizards.

Always a little too frayed at the edges, like a pair of too-many-touch-football-games Lee jeans, Favre’s idea of a “packaged play” is: “Go deep and I’ll chuck it.”

Even those current QBs who fit the old Favre mold — “gunslingers” — have evolved:

Mike Vick is in charge of the most innovative offense in the NFL. A newly mature Jay Cutler has taken the second-fewest sacks in the league (and barely cracks the Top 10 in INTs).

And then there is the one true heir to Favre:

Philip Rivers, right now arguably the second-best QB in the league behind Peyton Manning, has thrown just one INT and is completing passes at a career-best rate. Philip Rivers!

And he has done it by basically being “Opposite Brett.”

(Seriously: It’s like Rivers watched the classic Seinfeld episode “The Opposite” and took a page from George Costanza: “It’s all happening because I’m completely ignoring every urge towards common sense and good judgment I have had. This is no longer just some crazy notion. Elaine, Jerry, this is my religion.”)

Favre may want to play. Physically — which is what Bus Cook emphasized — he might even be in decent shape, for a 44-year-old or otherwise.

But it is the psychological side of the game — on and off the field — that has totally changed in a way that would make the league unrecognizable to him under center or standing at a locker. This is one reason why, of anyone, you could see Peyton Manning playing until he was 44.